It held up to 100 warriors and would have been part of a 100-strong battle group that would have terrified enemies.

"This ship was a troop carrier," said Gareth Williams of the British Museum told the Guardian.

"There are records in the annals of fleets of hundreds of ships," Williams said.

"So you could be talking about an army of up to 10,000 men suddenly landing on your coast, highly trained, fit, capable of moving very fast on water or land."

The dates suggest Roskilde 6 may have been built for King Canute, who according to legend set his throne in the path of the incoming tide, to prove to his courtiers that even a monarch could not control the force of nature.

With all the original timbers fitted into a steel frame that will recreate its full length, the ship will be the centrepiece of Viking, an exhibition opening at the Danish national museum in June, before being transported to London to launch the British Museum's new exhibition space in 2014.